Among the guests invited to the Time of the Writer festival is John van de Ruit. Born in Durban, the award-winning actor, playwright and producer was best known for his (and Ben Voss’s) satirical show Green Mamba — until he shot to literary stardom with his bestselling debut novel, Spud, which is based on his days at Michaelhouse. We caught up with him in his hometown.
The Time of the Writer festival is known to command some pretty serious literary cachet. How do you feel about being an invited guest, given that your book is a mainstream blockbuster?
I’ve never been a dyed-in-the-wool literary scion with a pipe and leather-elbowed houndstooth blazer. In fact, I generally resent the polarisation that occurs between the “popular” and the “serious” that exists in all forms of creative expression. There’s this implication that if lots of people like what you do then what you do is somehow not worthy of serious consideration. It further implies that all the people who like what you do are ignorant peasants.
Even though I come from an academic background (Van de Ruit holds a master’s in drama studies), I’m not hidebound in any way. To me, it’s good art if it’s honest, genuine and authentic and that’s all Spud is as it’s written directly from my experiences. Having said that, I think it’s fantastic that myself and Zapiro are guests here because it shows a desire to erase that dubious distinction between “high art” and “low art”.
Your master’s thesis, your play (War Cry) and now your book are all based upon your years at a KwaZulu-Natal boarding school. Ever thought about diversifying?
Okay, so I’ve milked the boarding school thing. But I believe in the dictum of “write what you know”. Besides, boarding school is a potent micro-cosmos of a great variety of human pathologies. It’s like Lord of the Flies, but with prefects, teachers and headmasters creating a bulwark of fascism to quell the anarchy.
Horace Walpole once said: “Life is a tragedy to those who feel and a comedy to those who think.” Into which category do you fall, in the context of your boarding school days?
Into both, I guess. I certainly felt enough pain but, ultimately, my ability to think developed in me a mordant sense of humour, which is a great coping mechanism. I think the best comedy is borne of a desire to overcome tragedy. That’s why Catch-22 struck such a chord with so many people.
What was the most painful thing you experienced at boarding school?
On my 14th birthday, I had my balls polished. They held me down, brought out a tin of shoe polish and went to work with very, very coarse brushes.
Hopefully the success of Spud has assuaged the pain somewhat. How did Spud come about?
Quite accidentally really. I was fiddling around with some kind of a story when all the characters sprouted legs and started running and I had to write as fast as I could to keep up with them. Then, because I have no contacts in the literary world, I just sat with the book for a year and a half before Penguin got hold of a manuscript and said they wanted to publish it. That was a big surprise. They said if it sold between 2 000 and 3 000 copies they considered it a bestseller, and a highly optimistic prediction would be 5 000 copies sold. Last I checked, 23 000 copies had been sold and the sales were still going strong.
So what’s next?
Spud 2: The Madness Continues.
Spud Review